LONDON — The British Charity Commission is formally investigating the aid group Crescent Relief and has frozen its funds, following allegations that the charity was linked to a thwarted terrorist plot to blow up trans-Atlantic flights.

The commission said Thursday it was looking into what it called "very serious" allegations of potential "terrorist abuse of charitable funds" at Crescent Relief. "The inquiry will focus on whether or not the charity's funds, or funds raised on its behalf, were used unlawfully," the statement said. "It will also consider the financial policies and practices of the charity."

Crescent Relief was registered as a charity in July 2001 and its list of original directors included the father of Rashid Rauf, a terrorism suspect arrested in Pakistan in connection with the foiled airline bombing plot this month.

According to its Web site, Crescent Relief aid projects include providing food, books and medicine to victims of the earthquake in Kashmir last year and the tsunami that swept through Asia in December 2004.

Also on Thursday, the British police said it had charged a 12th suspect in the foiled airliner plot, saying he had failed to disclose certain information. The suspect, Umair Hussain, 24, is the brother of Mehran Hussain, 23, who has been charged in connection to the plot, and of Nabeel Hussain, 22, who is being held but has not yet been charged.

Eight suspects appeared in British court this week on charges of conspiring to murder and preparing to commit acts of terrorism.

An error has occurred. Please try again later.

You are already subscribed to this email.

The police also said they had arrested a 27-year-old man from Manchester on suspicion of terrorism offenses. The arrest of the man, whose identity was not revealed, was not tied to the trans-Atlantic airline plot, the Greater Manchester Police said.

The Charity Commission has been an active partner to the authorities as they try to stamp out home-grown terrorism and extremism among its Muslim communities, following the London subway bombings in July 2005 and the most recent plot targeting airlines; both involved British citizens.

The Charity Commission, which is financed by the British government, has 500 employees and oversees some 190,000 organizations and nearly one million trustees, including many of Britain's churches and most of its mosques.

Britain's Home Office, along with the Treasury Department, is currently conducting a review of potential terrorist financing in charities, and plans to make recommendations for changes this autumn. "We are aware that existing safeguards against terrorist abuse in the charitable sector need to be strengthened," said a spokesperson from the Home Office.

The Charity Commission has been involved in other high-profile actions aimed at thwarting terrorism; in 2002, for example, it removed the cleric Abu Hamza from his position as an officer of a mosque in London, because it said he was making statements that were of "such an extreme and political nature as to conflict with its charitable status."